Professional and Professionalism

Although there are challenges to the concepts of professional and professionalism, professions still dominate our world. They are seen as “both necessary and desirable for a decent society” (Freidson, 1994, p. 9). A survey of the literature on professionalism provides several justifications for that claim. Some arguments are that professions meet the societal need for expertise and credentialism, that professions provide a “crucial link between the individual's struggle for a fulfilling existence and the needs of the larger society,” and that professions [Page 646]are a stabilizing force in society, protecting vulnerable people, social values, and providing quality service. Emile Durkheim, one of the first writers on professions, said that it is within “special groups” or professions that “morals may be evolved” and that it is professions' “business…to see they be observed” (1992, p. 7). This is especially true in areas where legal sanctions are not effective. Although everyone would agree that there have been moral slippages, many would argue that, as an ideal, professionalism is worth pursuing. Turning to the public relations field specifically, Doug Newsom, Judy Vanslyke Turk, and Dean Kruckeberg have suggested that “the best PR is evidence of an active social conscience” (2000, p. 3), and James E. Grunig and Todd T. Hunt (1984) have said that it is while acting as autonomous professionals that public relations practitioners could try to change the organization as well as the public.

Harold L. Wilensky, a sociologist, wrote that “any occupation wishing to exercise professional authority must find a technical basis for it, assert an exclusive jurisdiction, link both skill and jurisdiction to standards of training, and convince the public that its services are uniquely trustworthy” (1964, p. 138). He identified two criteria: the job must be technical and it must require adherence to “professional norms.” Professional norms require that the practitioner “adhere to a service ideal—devotion to the client's interests more than personal or commercial profit should guide decisions when the two are in conflict” (p. 138). This concept of service entails a necessary level of professional autonomy. This is an example of the trait approach to defining professionalism and is how the concept has traditionally been defined.

In the 1950s Edward Bernays recommended licensing as a means of ensuring professionalism. There seems to be consensus in the public relations literature as to what it means to be a professional. J. E. Grunig and Hunt's 1984 text, Managing Public Relations, listed five characteristics of a professional: a set of professional values, membership in strong professional organizations, adherence to professional norms, an intellectual tradition or established body of knowledge, and technical skills acquired through professional training. The set of professional values was explained as follows: “In particular, professionals believe that serving others is more important than their own economic gain. Professionals also strongly value autonomy. That is, they prefer the freedom to perform in the way they think is right to the rewards they may get to conforming to what others want” (1984, p. 66). Similar perspectives can be found in popular public relations textbooks. This approach fits into the traditional professional paradigm.

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